Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/275

Rh contracts and concessions granted by former governments, the provisions concerning church property, and those concerning exemptions from taxation.

The equivocal provisions most discussed up to the present time have been those referring to the oil resources of the republic. This has been true for a number of reasons. Oil production has rapidly increased and, on that account, has attracted attention. The Mexican oil supply was important in the World War and for that reason was watched with peculiar interest by partisans of both the allies and the central powers. Further, the leaders of the government in Mexico felt they had an opportunity to secure for the nation a great source of income from petroleum. They wanted to assure that the oil resources as yet undeveloped should be national property, they wanted to tax heavily the yield of the producing areas, and they showed a desire to manipulate the legislation affecting these areas in such a way that the government would have freedom from foreign interference in any measures it might adopt concerning the properties.

The provisions of the Constitution, under which the controversy has arisen, are those affecting general landholding and a special paragraph which reads:

In the nation is vested direct ownership of all minerals or substances which in veins, layers, masses, or beds constitute deposits whose nature is different from the components of the land, such as minerals from which metals and metaloids used